tion, will always please and delight the eye; but here beauty-or what we may call harmonic proportion in the masses and the members-may at times, if essentially required, in a picturesque edifice, be by a skilful hand sometimes varied and modified, or accommodated to the more important object, that of convenience, particularly where the building is to be in the Tudor style*—that is, where the interior of the house is a chief object; but the form must not be so violated as to be observed by the vulgar eye. With these two considerations, that of the exterior and interior combined, the architect is to endeavour to be not only well acquainted, but to make himself master of them, before he attempts to enter into the field of design. When a knowledge of this frequent perplexity is obtained, all the greater difficulties in architecture vanish; and the student will then be able to form, arrange, adjust, and delineate his ideas with satisfaction-even from the simple cottage to the gorgeous ducal palace, so as to render either worthy of the noblest encouragement and imitation.†

The contractedness of a site, or of the house, will sometimes prevent the architect from displaying his taste in designing; but it is to be observed, that even a small house equally requires his judgment to compose, so as to dispose of the parts in the most advantageous manner. For, although elegance itself may frequently be seen in a noble mansion, yet the same may be obtained in a building in miniature, well conceived and adjusted by a skilful hand, when perhaps on the same spot, if designed by a less efficient person, the house would appear an object of absurdityill-proportioned in the masses on the outside, and inconvenient in the distribution of the apartments within-of which we have many examples, even where expense was of no consideration. Strange as it may appear, it is no less a fact, that true taste is generally seen in the lesser rural residences; for the pride of an architect is here, with the most limited means, to produce the greatest possible beauty of form, combined with utility, as well as suitability to the destined purpose. Such buildings as these will at all times charm and attract the attention as well as call forth approbation.‡

In designing a country villa we should always keep in view the three following principal objects, namely, convenience, strength, and beauty: when these are united in a mansion, that house may be said to be perfect. Convenience consists in the most judicious distribution and division of the apartments, and in their comfort and utility, as best suited to the purpose for which the building is destined. Strength depends on an efficient site, or one that will support the superstructure; secondly, the formation of a proper foundation; thirdly, in the geometrical construction of the various parts of the edifice; and lastly, on the choice and goodness of the materials; all of which require a practical acquaintance with mathematics, geology, botany, and physical science. Strength, when combined with magnitude, gives sublimity to the third important quality. Beauty consists, first, in the simplicity of all details, and the symmetrical proportions in all the forms of the

* The irregularity of outline which the Tudor style admits, and indeed almost requires, consisting of gables, dormers, and chimney shafts, allows of any arrangement of the apartments which comfort or fancy may suggest, and accommodates itself to all the varied wants of modern life, from the palace of Henry VII. to that of the Elizabethan cottage.-(Quarterly Review for August 1831.)

+ It has been the fate of many architects, no doubt, in a circumstance of this kind, to have been counteracted in their designs by ignorant and tasteless employers, and not unfrequently obliged to sacrifice their own sublimer conceptions to the bad taste, the prejudice, or the obstinacy of contemporaries, by which their design has been spoiled and disfigured, so as to exhibit the above derangements. At times, nevertheless, it is the fault of the vacillating architect in too easily giving way, or suffering his judgment to be biassed by his employer, without at once pointing out in a clear and decided manner the injury that must be necessarily incurred.—(B.)

Chiswick House, near Richmond, is a beautiful Palladian suburban villa belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, though Lord Hervey sarcastically said, that "it was too small to inhabit, and too large to hang to a man's watch." The entrance is noble and imposing, the parts bold and majestic, but the interior is too much taken up by a large octagonal vestibule in the centre, ascending even to the very dome, by which the rooms around it are rendered mere closets. It is a design from Palladio by Lord Burlington, who was a great architect in his day. The grounds of this little villa are well laid out, and are in the true Italian style.—(B.)

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building, whether relating to its internal apartments or the general appearance of the exterior; secondly, in the uniform distribution of all subordinate members; and lastly, in the judicious application of ornaments; the whole of which depends on a correctness of taste, founded on the knowledge of general history and the fine arts.

Ornaments chiefly relate to the interior, yet on the exterior they are by no means objectionable; but they must be regulated by judgment; and the perfection consists in observing a due medium between the extreme of simplicity, and that confusion and redundancy of parts which have neither use nor meaning: such only should be introduced as are consistent, and by no means either too large or too little, too meagre or too luxuriant,* not applied to any part unnecessarily, but well relieved, and useful for the end for which they are introduced. All parts should be in keeping, or within harmonic rules, for it is only that just proportion and beauty, which are the chief characteristics, that can affect the eye of the judicious so as to please. It is this also that proclaims the true taste of the designer. For an architect to design a country seat or suburban villa that will at all times attract attention, it is required he should have a good taste as well as a good judgment† and inventive powers, which implies a general perception of the whole design, the application of the several parts, and such as are the most beautiful, fitting, and appropriate. In order to accomplish this, the architect must possess a great knowledge of the various forms in architecture, and be enabled to bring them to his aid, as well as to diversify and have the art of applying and harmonizing those parts into a pleasing whole, like forming a picture. However simple a residence may be intended, and admitting but of few breaks, it nevertheless admits of beauty as to form and proportion of parts; in fact, beauty is confined to small objects, for we never apply beauty to anything that is large; for example, we say a large horse is a noble animal, but we do not say this of the pony, we say that is a beautiful little animal. The same applies to an edifice; we say that is a noble mansion, and this a pretty little cottage. When an architect is designing a dwelling-house, therefore, it does not depend upon or require a profusion of ornaments to constitute it a beautiful building, but often the very reverse; for simplicity and taste, which are so difficult and the last to obtain, are closely allied; and the most tasteless designs are generally the most expensive, from the great quantity and heavy mass of materials which abound. In others, again, a redundancy of angles, by which some houses, in the architect's phrase, are entirely cut up, being crowded with inappropriate or unmeaning ornaments, is a sure sign of a low imagination. Let the architect always bear in mind, that whatever is ornamental should be useful, for

66 "T is use alone, that sanctifies expense."

There is, no doubt, a greater difficulty in designing a small house than a large one, and a picturesque residence more than one that is uniform, I mean where parts answer to parts. In a house on a small scale, the parts being few, the mind cannot rise to any great or noble idea, nor produce such

On the exterior of a house, if the ornaments are too large, they will reduce the size of the building in appearance; if too small, they will look petite and meagre. It is like colour in a picture, where that part which is deeply tinted will advance, while the part which is lightly touched will retire.-(A.)

Taste when employed, though with very little expense, will always produce something pleasing, while the utmost efforts of the latter unaided by the former are ineffectual. Every touch in the hand of the man of taste has so far its effect. It is precisely the same in works of art and of nature as in forming a design for a country seat. To illustrate our above position, set two artists at work: give one of them a pencil and a scrap of paper-every touch he makes perhaps deserves to be treasured up in a cabinet; give the other the costliest materials—all is waste of time, of labour, and expense; add colours, they only make its deformities more glaring.-(Gilpin on Picturesque Beauty.)

Giving effect to the principal structure, and diminishing the altitude of those of less importance, with projections beyond the straight line on the plan, produce a picturesque appearance.—(H.)

a variation as in the larger edifices. In these small dwelling-houses, therefore, the architect must trust to their good proportion in every part, and their suitableness to the surrounding scenery, with which they should at all times harmonise, and which scenery ought to suggest the design in detail as well as in outline. In this instance an architect should have a knowledge of landscape-painting as well as landscape-gardening, to feel, as the artists express it, the subject. He also requires a good taste for the composition of rural scenery and dressed art, as well as a fine feeling for the arts in general, operating on his mind when he sits down to design a residence of the rural kind, without which he will never succeed. It must also be kept in view, that in designing a manor-house in the Roman style, grandeur of architecture should be studied; in the Grecian villa, chasteness and sublimity; in the Italian casino, beauty and ornament; and in the Tudor residence, picturesqueness. The rustic cottage, or cottage ornée, should also be picturesque in the outline, with dormer windows rising into the roof, and the roof itself hiped, or inclined inwards at the ends, and likewise to have rustic awnings to the south front of the house, which give the effect of retirement, and to be partially covered or concealed with ivy, woodbine, and clematis.

Climate should always point out and direct the architect as to his design, arrangements, and assembling of the parts of his architectural edifice, according to the latitude of the country wherein it is to be erected; and his buildings should always be contrived to admit or exclude the sun ad libitum, to give shelter from the nipping cold, or to be secure against intense heat from the scorching rays of the sun, and to yield shade without immediate reference to either extreme. All these, however, do not affect the internal arrangement and harmonious proportions of the constituent parts. Climate is therefore only modifying, not creative. The two preceding causes may suggest composition, but hardly design, for, with the exception of the pointed and flat roof, according to the humidity or dryness of the atmosphere, and the adoption of the angular pediment surmounting the horizontal lines of the entablature, little essential form or order has been added, or materially influenced by climate. However this cause produced by climate has given rise to and permitted many picturesque combinations.* Those who are ignorant of the practical part, or the establishments of large families, are certainly not capable of designing buildings of any magnitude with propriety; and many such there undoubtedly are at the present day, who make a copy from some architectural book, without studying the principles or the appropriateness of such a design for the spot on which the house is to be erected. This is a species of servility which ought not to be countenanced by an employer, when in reality the very site on which the house was intended to be built, should have suggested the design to the mind of the architect, and afforded the proper ideas for the composition of the structure, whether uniform or picturesque. Now surely what the poet applied to a noble votary of the muses in his day, might with much truth and a little variation, be applied to such architectural pretenders :+

It is to be remembered that climate and material must always operate upon and direct the design of the architect, which has been observed in all ages and parts of the world. Where the country is cold, we find the houses to have been built diminutive, and the rooms and the apertures few and small. On the contrary, where the climate is hot and sultry, the houses have been built large, the rooms spacious and lofty and with more apertures, and those of an enlarged size. As to the materials, they have also had their share in influencing the formation of the edifices; thus we have observed in Norway, where wood is in great abundance, and where stone could not be found near the spot or is expensive to work, there the log or timber-framed house has arisen on a rubble-base foundation. (Laing's Norway, p. 29.) But where neither wood nor stone was to be had in sufficient quantities, then the cob or clay-wall supplied its place, as in Chaldea. (See Job, iv. 19.) Where brick-earth was to be obtained on the spot, as in Egypt, bricks were made and substituted; and where stone abounded, as in Greece, that material was more generally adopted.-(A.)

+ It is not sufficient that the architectural student should be skilled in superadding the beau idéal to suitableness, and to

In composing a rural residence, the various opening and distant views, with the close adjacent parts of the scenery around the site on which the house is to be erected, are the first in importance, and must be well considered, before the architect determines either on what style of architecture should be adopted, or begins to compose his design; and that design, if extensive, should, like a picture, have some parts prominent as a foreground, others falling back as a middle group, and the third more retired as a background; this will produce shadow and give effect to the lights. Some parts of the house will probably require to project, or be brought forward from a straight line on the plan; while other parts of the house may, on the contrary, recede on that plan, or, in some parts of the elevation be allowed to rise higher than others, by which the contour of the edifice will produce a playful variation, but which outline is to be regulated by the local scenery. Thus, like grouping figures in an historical piece, it will be seen that while some parts require to rise in form of triangles, others, on the contrary, may require to be horizontal and rise less in height, thus producing an harmonious play of outline along the summit against the sky, which is of the greatest importance, and therefore must be well studied and contrasted. And again, some parts will require to be finished with lines. in an inclined direction.* Wherever there are open vistas, here projecting parts in the building should be introduced. If there are side views of importance, then polygonal, circular, or bay windows may be adopted with advantage; but when the home scenery approaches nearly to the house and no view can be obtained, then, on the other hand, the building should here recede back.

or pass

As to peculiar situations, which we shall now hint at, we may observe, that if the house is to be erected on high ground, then the building should be kept low, and never rise more than two stories high. If on low ground, vice versâ, another, but picturesque, story may be added: the summit will thus be diversified. If a midland situation, the house should partake of the two characters: if the ground is level and the scenery tame, the architecture should be of the horizontal kind, consisting chiefly of even and level lines, such as are seen in the Grecian temple. If the house is to be designed for low ground abounding with mounds and clumps of trees, then the perpendicular style should be adopted, with pediments, some of which are to be principal and others secondary, such as that of the Tudor architecture. If rugged and rocky scenery be the accompaniments, the architecture should be of the rustic kind, and consist of diversified, abrupt, and unequal lines, and rustic parts, with an unevenness of summit. If the mansion is to be designed for a high hill, then a resemblance to the feudal castle should be kept in view.†

Now where consistent forms are most apparent in a house, there harmony will undoubtedly preside, whether the design be plain, consisting but of few parts according to the general cast of the country,

the laws of composition, propriety, harmony, light, shadow, and colour; this indeed will make the artist, but he must be well instructed in the sciences, and indefatigable in tracing causes through effects; and, above all, he must be industrious in applying the results of these to his other studies, always remembering that neither an acquaintance with the science of building nor the unassisted qualifications of an artist will constitute him an architect, but that it is the union of both which alone can give a real claim to distinction.-(Essay on Architecture.)

* A continuation of a single idea in a noble edifice produces grandeur, as we see in a colonnade. If carried to too great an extent it destroys grandeur, as we perceive in an avenue where at a distance the parts draw together. Variation of parts produces the picturesque, but too sudden and too frequent a change produces a littleness.—(B.)

+ If the architect will observe the harmonies in nature, he may perceive that even the clouds form and adapt themselves to the outline of the scenery, or country over which they pass. Thus in a level country long horizontal streaks of clouds are seen floating near the horizon. Where the country is formed of hillocks and gently undulating ground, the clouds are fleecy, while over mountainous parts the clouds form grand and sublime masses. This the painter is well aware of, and composes his picture accordingly, and such should be the practice of the architect when he designs for a given site.-(B.) "To raise the terrace or to sink the grot,

In all let nature never be forgot."-(Essay on Taste.)

or whether the design be enriched with ornament, and clothed with decorations suitable to luxuriant scenery; if the rules of nature have been applied, all the parts must please both in detail and as a whole. Hence it is observed that situation ought at all times, in a great measure, to suggest, guide, and direct the architect how to compose and apply his masses and his ornaments—thereby blending and making science and art, as it were, to unite together-and to adopt such forms to the spot on which the house is to stand as shall be in accordance. Now there is nothing that shows the complete architect so much as his having every part of his design antecedently in his imagination, and suitably to the intended purpose, before any portion of it is applied to paper and formed into a plan.* It was by this the architects of old made themselves so famous; by this they foresaw and prevented all that would be ungraceful, and therefore admitted into their plans nothing but grace.

We may further observe, that there is always in nature's works one length proportioned to the breadth, that is preferable to another, though the architect may not have defined its limits; so there is in this respect of an elevation of a house, a certain degree of height to be proportioned to the just consideration of length and breadth, which is better than all others, though this has been no more given in the writings of architects than the principles of the former. Yet it is evident by existing works that some have discovered it, (unless we attribute this to individual feeling,) and founded their practice upon this happy rule. In this case it should be sought in the edifices they have erected, in whatever buildings strike the eye as harmonious; or we should examine the cause of this, and the imperfection in our own minds, and not be like those who are pleased with a building they know not why, and displeased with something they do not care for. Of this we may then assure the young architect who will employ himself in the research, as we have before recommended, that though he should not be able to make such a discovery of principle, yet that it results from some law of order: his trouble will not be misapplied, for by admeasuring and considering a great number of elevations of celebrated buildings, he will be able to deduce such favourable rules from them for himself as would not otherwise have occurred but from a long experience. He will thus accustom and have his mind stored with a variety of good-proportioned elevations; I mean such as are generally approved, or appear excellent and pleasing. By studying the advantages and disadvantages of these severally, and improving upon one by what is better in another, and then forming the elevation upon the parts as well as the general extent, he will very probably at length be able to establish that rule he could nowhere before find, and qualify himself for designing. Besides, unless we make ourselves acquainted with the genuine proportions and first principles of the ancients, how little are we competent to form a just estimate of those matchless edifices erected by them during the most flourishing epochs of their history, and which should constitute the main object of the architect's

* When an architect sits down to design the exterior of a building where it is to be seen detached, as in the country, he should always have the perspective appearance of it in his mind's eye, and not merely the front elevation, or the cornices will not unite, and the house when built will appear to have been made up of patches; such houses are frequently to be met with even designed by professing architects.—(B.)

The man of true taste makes not a single stroke till the general design is arranged in his mind, with which, in some part or other, every effort coincides. An artist may work at a picture in this part or the other, if his design and composition are fixed, and every effort will be gradually growing into a whole; whereas he who works without taste or judgment seldom has any idea of a complete building. He tacks one part to another as his misguided fancy suggests, or if he has any plan, it is something as unnatural as the parts which compose it are absurd, and the wider the scale of the building and the deeper the pockets of the employer, the wider will the deformity spread.-(Gilpin on Composition.)

+ Whatever buildings generally please should be drawn, measured, and reduced to a system of rule. It is by this method the statuary proceeds with his deities, forming them by combinations of members from the human figure. Further, let it be remembered in reference to this subject, that Homer first wrote the Iliad, and that afterwards Aristotle deduced from it the rules for an epic poem.-(A.)

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