might be mentioned, these are sufficient to give the young architect an idea of the censure passed by the rigid admirers of antiquity on the modern style; and certain it is, that, if greatness of manner consists in presenting here and there essential parts to the eye, the more breaks, interceptions, and divisions there are, the more the appearance of the whole must tend to littleness and deformity.

Surely the peristyle or range of columns, the uninterrupted entablature, the angular pediment unbroken and unencumbered, delight the eye more by their uniform grandeur than pillars crowded into groups, cornices shapened into angles; and pediments twisted into curves are flourishes which break one grand into many petty objects, and can neither fix the sight nor arrest the attention. The former is the Grecian, the latter the Roman.

DISSERTATION XLI.

ON SECTIONS.

"Plans and clevations without sections are like so many locks without keys."-PERrault.

Without a practical knowledge of the anatomical part of a house (if I may so express myself) the various sections cannot properly be made, and the designer literally knows nothing of architecture beyond the shell or outer surface; neither are plans and elevations of little use without the sections, which constitutes the third division of Design. But it will be necessary here in a few words to define what sections are. First, then, if the front of a house be drawn to a scale on paper in all its relative proportions, it forms what is called an orthographical or geometrical elevation. Now, if the front wall of this house should at any future period be taken down for the purpose of altering its external shape or re-building it anew, and by that means laying entirely exposed the ends of the floors and joist open with the side walls, and the inner partitions left standing, with all the doors and fireplaces exposed to view, and a drawing of the ends of the walls with the cornices, skirting, edges of the floors, ends of the joists, and timbers of the roof, doors, windows, and staircases seen within the rooms, be now drawn on paper by a scale in their true and proper position and proportion, and the same be shadowed and coloured as the whole appears to the eye; then we say such a repreWhen a section is made or cut through the narrowest part of the house, suppose from front to back, i. e. south to north, it is called a latitudinal or transverse section. And when the section is made on the largest line or diameter of the house, suppose from east to west, such is then called a longitudinal section.

sentation is a section of the house as it stands before us.

Now in making out a set of drawings for a house which is to be erected, this knowledge is of the utmost practical consequence, for without sections the builder has none of the internal heights of the rooms, and other essential parts required for his direction and guidance; such as the height of the doors, height of windows from the floor, and distance of the heads down from the ceiling. Neither can the architect himself without a section calculate the headways of his stairs, or lay open to view the finishing of the rooms on the inside of the house, such as chimneypieces, skirting, doors, windowshutters and cornices. The knowledge of the profiles of cornices in respect to their effect of light and shadow on the various sides of the room, as well as their sections, and the cornices of the exterior sections, is also an important branch. Likewise architraves, archivaults, and the flowers in the middle of ceilings all require cross sections, without which no perfect idea could be formed of their figure and effect, so as to be depended upon when executed. It is not only necessary to show the height of all fireplaces, but also the winding tract of each chimney-flue or funnel up through the walls between one floor and another. Those are to be shown by partial sections.* In this part of

* The course of the flues up the walls must be shown by dotted lines for the guidance of the bricklayer, or the chimneys, after built, will very probably be liable to smoke. That an apartment is uncomfortable which is subject to such

designing, a practical or mechanical architect has the advantage over a mere pictorial draughtsman, and those who have had the most experience, and been the most indefatigable in their researches as to the mode adopted by the ancients in their remaining works, are best qualified to be entrusted with the erection of buildings.

As to the height of rooms in each floor, that must depend on the class of the house, and also on the size and proportion of the rooms, as I have elsewhere already observed; but the following are the most general heights: In a first-rate house three stories high, ground-floor, fourteen feet; first-floor, fifteen feet; bed-room, ten feet. In a second-rate house, ground-floor, twelve feet; firstfloor, thirteen feet; bed-room, nine feet. In a third-rate house two stories high, ground-floor, nine feet; first floor, eight feet, and garrets seven feet. Those are general measures, but when the whole of a building is to be proportioned, then the floors will differ by some odd inches. Finally, it is necessary to observe, that all kitchens should be lofty, and large, in proportion to the house.

a nuisance, cannot be controverted; yet with all this we find a very general disregard of those precautions which would admit of a strong draft up the chimney. Masons and bricklayers too often follow their own circumscribed notions, which are either influenced by convenience to themselves or by local customs, with little regard to absolute principle. Now it frequently happens that the smoking of chimneys is occasioned by the flues being carried up narrower at the top than below, or their having one or more sharp angular turns formed in them. When chimneys are constructed in a pyramidal or tapering form, and at the same time unpargeted or left rough or unplastered, with bits of stones or bricks projecting into them, as well as the mortar, which is pressed from the joists of the work left or remaining uncovered, there smoking is almost certain. The air, rarified by the fire, passes up a chimney with the smoke; but as it recedes from the impelling power, or fire, it moves slower, and requires a greater portion of space to circulate through. If then the upper part of a chimney instead of being wider than below be contracted, and if the roughness of the walls, (which ought to be smooth) concur at the same time to increase the obstruction, it is no wonder that the smoke, taking the path of least resistance, should find its way into the room whenever resisted by a current from above.

The fireplace is generally an exact square. Its height in large rooms is often, very properly, made less than a square, and in small rooms particularly; when the chimney is in a corner it is rather more in height. In rooms from twenty to twenty-four feet square, or of equal area, it may be from four feet to four feet and a half broad. In rooms from twentyfour to thirty feet square, it may be from four and a half to five feet; and in rooms still larger it may be extended in a similar proportion to six feet. If much beyond six feet, whatever may be the size of the room, the effect will not be good: for if the fire be proportionate, it will excite rather the idea of a furnace. Two fireplaces will certainly be better in an assembly or public room than one of such overgrown dimensions as would be required. As to the effect of the form of this aperture on the draft, its breadth is not very important, provided it be not so narrow as to prevent the covings from standing with their greatest powers of reflection towards the room; but the height should seldom exceed two feet six inches to the underside of the mantle. The throat should not be more than four or five inches wide; but should be constructed by a part moveable at the back when the chimney requires sweeping; the nearer the throat is brought to the fire the stronger the draft will be. Note: another method of increasing the draft of a chimney consists in setting the grate, if a Bath stove, eleven or twelve inches from the fender; and in cutting away the back of the chimney so as to leave a space of two inches between it and the back of the grate. If the grate be of the common form, the sides should be fitted up with brick-work; by this construction the air that passes behind the back of the grate, assisting to impel the smoke, prevents its bursting into the room. The draft may be still further increased if required, by admitting a passage of air up through a small grating directly under the grate inserted into the hearth-stone; but this place must have a well underneath for the ashes, which is to be occasionally taken up.

The flues of chimneys above the throat are usually made equal to about twelve inches square, and the general rule is, to make the area of the horizontal section of the flue equal to the area of the horizontal section of the pipe. If the flue were made circular and smooth, this mode of proportioning its size would doubtless be found to allow a good passage for the smoke. Large or high chimneys always draw better than low ones, as in proportion to their length the influence of the wind extends a shorter way down them. The same is the case with those chimneys where the flue is largest at the top; the gusts of wind from the top soon receive a check and again return, while the pyramid flue brings the whole of the smoke back into the When chimneys are bounded on the top by a zig-zag line, so as to resemble the teeth of a saw, they are found to be far less liable to smoke than they are in other respects under the same circumstances; and in a greater variety of cases the cheap and easy expedient of altering the tops of smoky chimneys to this form has been attended with complete sucThe partitions in a stack should be indented, as well as the outer walls of the chimney.—(Author.)

room.

cess.

DISSERTATION XLII.

ON PAINTING AND DECORATING THE INTERIOR OF A HOUSE WITH COLOURS; THEIR QUALITIES AND LAW OF HARMONY CONsidered.

"Who can paint like Nature ?"-THOMPSON.

Without a knowledge of the peculiar expression or emotion produced by different colours, and an acquaintance with the laws which control the harmonious decoration of a house; with those materials the architect may destroy the effect of the most chaste and graceful combinations of mass and form, as well as the grandest arrangement of lines. Now colour is capable of producing the most important effect upon the mind. It gives character to the hall, the staircase, and the drawing-room, effectually calls the imagination into play; requires no previous study to render its effects to be deeply felt by the uneducated, and the refined mind. It acts upon the feelings by sensations either sublime, cheerful, or gloomy. It is a principle by which the artists of all nations and of all periods have sought to appeal to the feelings. Egypt in all her sublimity, ‡ Attica in all her purity

* House-painting is the art of covering with various suitable pigments, all such wood-work, walls, and ceilings, both of the interior and exterior of houses as is found requisite. It may be divided into three separate branches, viz. plain painting, graining, and ornamental painting.

The material chiefly employed in plain painting is white-lead. This is a carbonate of lead produced by the action of the vapour of vinegar on sheet lead; and when ground up with linseed oil, forms the common white-lead paint in use: it is improved by being kept for several years. To produce the different tints, various colours are added to the white-lead base, in quantity according to the intensity of the tint desired, amounting sometimes to an exclusion of the white-lead in the upper or finishing coats. The following are the colours generally used by the house-painter :-

+ White, as it is the colour of day, is expressive to us of the cheerfulness or gaiety which the return of day brings. Black, as the colour of darkness, is expressive of gloom and melancholy. The colour of the heavens in serene weather is blue; blue is therefore expressive to us of somewhat of the same pleasing and temperate character. Blue was held by the oriental nations in great esteem, probably on account of its being the colour of the sky. The robe of the ephod in the splendid dress of the high priest among the Hebrews was all blue; this was also a prominent colour in the hangings of the tabernacle. The magnificent feast of the Persian king, Ahasuerus, was given in a place hung with white, green, and blue hangings, upon a pavement of red, blue, white, and black marble. (Esther, i. 6.) Light blue is still a favourite colour among the Persians, in whose dress it is more extensively used than any other. In Arabia also the dress of the women commonly consists of an ample shift and drawers of blue linen; and in Turkey and Syria the large wrapper in which the women envelope themselves is often of that colour. We know not on what grounds Paxton finds that blue was not much in the estimation of the Orientals, particularly as blue is also employed very prominently in the interior decorations of houses and public buildings. (Travels in the East.) Green is the colour of the grass on the earth in spring: it is consequently expressive to us of some of those delightful images which we associate with that season. Some colours acquire a character from accidental association; purple, for instance, has acquired a character of dignity, from its accidental connexion with the dress of kings. (In the reign of the Roman emperors no subject dared to wear purple.) The colours of ermine have a similar character from the same cause. The colours in every country which distinguish the dress of magistrates, judges, &c. acquire a dignity in the same manner.--(Alison on the Nature and Principles of Taste.)

The walls and ceilings of the Egyptian houses were laid out in compartments (or stucco work) with admirable skill in zig-zag, scroll-frett, and chequer-work, and painted with great taste with pure colours (except the green,) each colour well disposed for contrast and relief. Those used consisted of vermillion, blue, yellow, green, white, and black. Vermil

and grace, Asia in all her wild luxuriance, Europe in the middle ages, and the Italian architecture at the revival have derived powers of expression and emotion from this source, which was subsequently neglected; and which it is the interest of the architect of the present day to revive, study, and render applicable to his own designs.

The different sentiments of mankind with regard to beauty of colours are inconsistent with the opinion, that such qualities are beautiful in themselves. It is impossible to infer, because one particular colour is beautiful in one country that it will also be beautiful in another; now this immediately concerns us; for there are, in fact, many instances where the same colour produces very different opinions of beauty in the minds of different races of people.+ Black to us is in general an unpleasant colour; in Spain and in Venice it is otherwise. Yellow is to us, at least in dress, a disagreeable colour; in China it is the favourite colour. White to us is extremely beautiful; in China, on the contrary, it is extremely disagreeable. If we inquire on the other hand, what is the reason of this difference of opinion, we shall uniformly find, that it arises from the different associations which these different people have with such colours; and that there, opinion of beauty is permanently regulated by the nature of the qualities of which they are expressive. Black is to us an unpleasant colour, because it is the colour appropriated to mourning; in Venice and Spain it is the colour which distinguishes the dress of the great. Yellow is in China the imperial colour, and sacred to the emperor and his property; it is therefore there associated with ideas of magnificence and royalty. Among us it has no distinct associations, and is therefore beautiful or otherwise, only according to its degree of shade. White is beautiful to us in a supreme degree, as emblematical both of innocence and cheerfulness; in China, on the other hand, it is the colour appropriated to mourning, and consequently very far from being generally beautiful. In the same manner wherever any peculiar colours are permanently favourite, there will always be found some pleasing association which the people have with that colour, and of which they in some measure consider it as significant.

It is further observable, that no colours, in fact, are beautiful but such as are expressive to us of pleasing or interesting qualities. All colours obviously are not beautiful, for the same colours are beautiful only when they are expressive of such qualities, and in general I believe it will be found, that among all the variety of colours we are acquainted with, those only are beautiful which have similar expressions. The common colours, for instance, of many indifferent things which surround us; such as the earth, stone, wood, &c. those have no kind of beauty externally, and are never mentioned as such. The things in themselves are so indifferent to us, that they excite no kind of emotion, and of consequence, their colours produce no greater sensation, as the signs of such qualities, than the qualities. themselves. We take our ideas of beautiful colours from the great. Thus the colour of common lion was much esteemed in those days, being frequently referred to by the sacred writers: see Jeremiah, xxii. 14 : “ I will build me a wide house and large chambers, ceiled with cedar and painted with vermillion."

* During the middle period the walls of some of our palatial buildings were painted green, bespangled with stars of gold, while others were embellished with landscapes painted on them, or historical pieces on a white ground. Friar Simeon has described the painted chamber at Westminster, as he saw it in the reign of Edward III., A.D. 1322. Near this monastery of Westminster, says he, stands the most famous royal palace in England, in which is that celebrated chamber (the late House of Commons,) on whose walls all the warlike histories of the whole Bible are painted with inexpressible skill, and explained by a regular and complete series of texts, beautifully written in French over each battle, to the no small admiration of the beholder, and display of royal munificence.-(A.)

+ This shows the necessity of studying and adopting colours to rooms to every varied style of architecture agreeably to what is in use in each particular country, for we find that what colour is cheerful in one is absolutely the colour of mourning in another.-(Author.)

There are colours, perhaps, more generally beautiful than those which distinguish trees, rocks, or water, or cottages, or ruins, or any of the ordinary ingredients of rural scenery. Yet no colours but the natural could possibly be beautiful in the imitation of such scenes, because no other colours could be expressive to us of those qualities, which are the sources of our gratification from such objects in nature. This idea does not extend to polished marbles, which are more or less beautiful. The stones now used in the Suspension Bridge near Bristol, represent the most beautiful landscapes.—(Author.)

furniture never seems beautiful to us; it is the colours only of fashionable, or costly, or magnificent articles which are ever considered as such. It may be observed also, that no new colour is ever beautiful until we have acquired some pleasing association with it. This is peculiarly observable in the article of dress, and indeed it is the best instance of it, because in such cases, no other circumstance intervenes by which the experiment can be influenced. Most people must have observed, that, in the great variety of new colours which the caprice of fashion is perpetually introducing, no new colour appears beautiful at first sight. We feel on the contrary a kind of disappointment when we see such a colour in the dress of those who regulate the fashions instead of that which used to distinguish them; and even although the colour should be such as in other subjects we consider as beautiful, our disappointment still overbalances the pleasure it gives. A few weeks, even a few days, alter our opinion; as soon as it is generally adopted by those who lead the public taste, and has become of consequence the mark of rank and elegance, it immediately becomes beautiful. This, it is observable, is not peculiar to colours that in themselves may be agreeable, for it often happens that the caprice of fashion leads us to admire colours that are disagreeable, and that not only in themselves, but also from the associations with which they are connected.* If the faculty

by which the beauty of colours is perceived had any analogy to a house, it is obvious that such variations in our opinion of their beauty could not take place.

When the particular associations we have with such colours are destroyed, their beauty is destroyed at the same time. Rose colour, for instance, is a more rich and beautiful colour than that of mahogany, yet if any man were to paint his doors and windows with rose colour, he would certainly not add to their beauty. The colour of a polished steel grate is agreeable, but is in itself not very beautiful; suppose it painted green, or violet, or crimson, all of these colours much more beautiful; and the beauty of it is altogether destroyed. The colours of cedar, and of Spanish mahogany, and of satin-wood, are not nearly so beautiful as many other colours that may be mentioned. There is no colour, however, with which such woods can be painted, that would be so agreeable as the colours of the woods themselves, because they are very valuable, and the colours are in some measure significant to us of this value. A ray of light refracted by a glass prism is decomposed into seven rays, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Each of these rays is less refrangible, as it is nearer to the red. This ray is of all others, that which strikes the eye with the greatest force, and produces on the retina the liveliest impressions. The eagerness of savages for stuffs of this colour is well known; it is the most brilliant and splendid of all.†

In nature the colours of all plants are seen to harmonize, let there be ever so many different sorts grouped together; which is produced by the reflection of the colour of one plant upon another by the light from the sky; which, whether it is morning, noon, or evening, equally sheds its influence over all nature's productions, and invigorates them with life. Nothing is crude or has a sameness in the colours of nature; even the same plant has different degrees of colour, light, and shade; but all is soft, agreeable, and harmonious. Hence

"Nature to make her beauties known,

Mingles colours not her own."-DR. WATTS.

A plain man would scarcely believe, that the colours of a glass bottle or of a dead leaf, such as that of the sage-leaf, or a lump of clay, &c. could ever be beautiful; yet within these few years not only these, but many more colours of this kind, might be mentioned, that have and still are fashionable and admired, that of the sage-leaf is justly so for the walls of rooms. How much more soft and beautiful in their green colour than the raw green, where the deep blue predominates.-(B.)

+ I have seen maniacs whose madness after a long suspension, never failed to break out at the sight of a red cloth, or of one clothed in that colour.-(Richerand's Elements, p. 253.)