The Press. — London, England, 1856-02-09 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 9, 1856. paltry work, and will make one who is now not unjustly the object of partial admiration, ere long that of general contempt. And the Shepherd then bursts an ay into poetry, and with fine effect curries the reader into purer atmosphere : Shepherd : Thank Heaven, sir, that I'm out o' the stour o pairty in the Forest! In cities, towns, and villages, frae Lunnon down to Pettycur, it keeps drivin in your face, till in angry blindness you goiter again' your fellow creturs borin alang in the opposite direction, or rin yoursel a dunsh again' the wa'. But a's sweet and serene out by yonder, sir, and natur follows her aiu way in obedience t) the everlastin laws that bring ae season in beauty out o' the bosom o' the ither, the shady simmer broonin awa by imperceptible gradations o' colour intil the gorgeous autumn—the autumn tadin awa in fire intil the seelent snaws o' winter—and the wintet in Fade time layin aside her white mantle, and in green symar chvgin afore the gratefu' gaze intil the warld•worshipped spring. Noah : No Reform needed there, James. Shepherd : Neel said, sir—nae Reform—except in our sin hearts—and there it'ill be needed as lang's St. Mary's rows the silver waters o' the Yarrow, Wl' a' their eemaged clouds, hills, and trees, to join her sister Ettrick, ere the tea melt their name and natur in the sea•seeking Tweed. Our remarks on the previous volumes of the " Noctes " are confirmed by the present one. We fear that there is too much of them; and there is more appearance of monologue, chopped into a dialogue, as the work proceeds. The Shepherd, also, is less various, but there is genius, not mere talent, impressed on the writing; and ephemeral topics are elevated by the light of philosophic imagination with which North flashes over the whole social horizon. Illustrated Handbook of Architecture. By James Fergusson. Two Vols. London: Murray. THOUGH not of imposing size, Mr. Fergusson's book has legitimate claims to be considered a great work. It is the result of long labour and original observation. It contains a co pious notice of every well-marked style of architecture known to exist, and the descrip tive matter is illustrated by 850 wood-engra• vings (most of them drawn to a scale), showing examples of the various styles described in the text. To what has been accomplished by Lis predecessors in architectural research, Mr. Fergusson adds the knowledge which many years of study and travel have enabled him to collect. Hence his work is complete as an outline history of the art. In its arrangement he has been embarrassed by inherent difficulties. A chronological or topographical treatment would have been im perfect alone, and therefore he has combined the two. In the first place, he treats of those forms of architecture which are, according to our present state of knowledge, isolated—as the Buddhist and Hindu architecture; the styles of China, and of Mexico and Peru and those of Western Asia, beginning with that of Assyria and of Persia. He then passes to the Egyptian style, which he regards as the parent of that of Greece and Rome; and, drawing a line between heathen and Christian art, he passes from the old Roman to the Saracenic style, opening the first volume with the great division of Christian architecture. In this latter a natural division may, he supposes, be made, by drawing a line from the head of the Adriatic to the Gulf of Finland,—all to the west of this line belonging► to the Gothic, and to the east of it to the Byzantine school. The whole arrangement is clearly carried out, but, as all such divisions must be partly fanciful, we do not attach much importance to them except for convenience of reference. In all the departments of his book the author shows great intelligence. The space devoted to Gre cian architecture seems, however, much too scant, considering its importance and the room afforded to other styles. The architec ture of Rome, though intrinsically less worthy, is treated at much greater length. In the books on Gothic architecture the styles of each principal country of Europe are treated in detail ; the part relating to French archi tecture being particularly well done. In the pleasing and acute introduction to his work the author endeavours to establish some firm principles of architecture. He shows how the art arose from purely useful design in the first instance, and how every style which has any title to be called great and original followed out simple, elementary, utilitarian conceptions, with continual im- THE PRESS. provement and increasing magnitude, until sublime results were obtained. In every dis tinctly•marked style we can trace the succes sive stages, from the rudest beginnings to the most perfect development. The art is a chain of continuous links, without break and with out irregularity. We seem to see in tile specimens which remain, one mind advancing upon the efforts of its predecessor, as, in our own day, we see steady improvement in the mechanical arts. In some singularly ingenious observations the author supposes that the mind and feel ings of a nation are reflected in its architec ture, quite as closely as in its language. He compares the researches of the architectural explorer to those of the comparative anato mist : A Cuvier or an Owen can restore the form and predicate the habit] of an extinct animal from a few fragments of bone, on even the print of a foot. In the same manner an architect may, from a few fragments of a building, if of a true style of architecture, restore the whole of its pris tine forms, and with almost the same amount of certainty. With admirable sagacity he traces the real secret of the continued advance in architecture to a strict observance of its fundamental or utilitarian principles, and he furnishes a reason why so little is said of architects in this history of architecture, as no one can be named who, during the prevalence of a true style of art, ma terially advanced its progress, or by his indivi dual exertion did much to help it forward. He compares the progress of architecture to that of ship-building : Let us take a series of ships, beginning with those in which William the Conqueror invaded our shores, or the fleet with which Edward 111. crossed over to France. Next take the vessels which transported Henry VIII. to his meeting with Francis 1., and then pass on to the time of the Spanish Armada and the sea fights of Van Tromp and De Ruyter, and on to the times of William 111., and then through the familiar examples, till we come to such ships as the Wellington and Marlborough now afloat. In all this long list of examples we have a gradual, steady, forward progress, without one check or break. Each century is in advance of the one before it, and the result is as near per fection as we can well perceive. But, if we ask who effected those improvements, or who invented any part of the last-named wonderful fabrics, we must search deep indeed into the annals of the navy to find out. But no one has inquired, and no one cares to know, for the simple reason that, like architecture in the middle ages, it is a true and living art, and the improve• ments were not effected by individuals, but by all classes— owners, sailors, shipwrights, and men of science, all work ing together through centuries, each lending the aid of his experience or his reasoning. If we place alongside of this series of ships a list of churches or cathedrals, commencing with Charlemagne and ending with Charles V.. we find the same steady and assured progress, assured by the same identical means. In this instance, princes, priests, masons, and mathemati cians all worked steadily together for the whole period, striving to obtain a welt•defined result. In the ship the most suitable materials only are em ployed in every part. and neither below nor aloft is there one single timber, nor spar, nor rope which is superfluous. Nor in the cathedral was there ever any material used that was not believed to be the most suitable for its purpose ; nor one form of construction which did not seem the best to those who employed it ; nor any detail added which did not seem necessary for the purpose it was put there to express ; and the consequence is that we can look on and contemilate both with the same unmitigated satisfaction. The whole history of various styles of the art,—of those styles which had a genuine life of their own,—is an exemplification of this sagacious passage ; and in later paragraphs the author shows that his principle would apply to civil engineering, as, for example, the four bridges, built at nearly equal intervals in ono century—Westminster, Blackfriars, Water loo, and London—and to the most original edifice of modern day : In the confusion of ideas and of styles which now prevails, it is satisfactory to be able to contemplate, in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, at least one great building carried out wholly in the principles of Gothic of [and?] of any [every?] true style of art. No material is used in it which is not the best for its purpose; no constructive expedient employed which is not absolutely essential ; and it depends wholly for its effect on the arrangement of its parts and the display of its construction. So essentially is its prin ciple the same which as we have seen animated Gothic architecture, that we hardly know even now how much of the design belongs to Sir Joseph Paxton, how much to the contractors, or how much to the subordinate officers em• ployed by the company. Here, as in a cathedral, every man was set to work in that department which it was sup posed he was best qualified to superintend. There was room for every art and for every intellect, and clashing and interference were impossib'e. This, however, is only the second of the series. A third would probably as far sur pass it as it is beyond the first ; and if the series were carried to a hundred, with more leisure and a higher aim, we might, perhaps, learn to despise many things we now so servilely copy, and might create a style surpassuig any- 139 thing that ever went before. We have, certainly, more wealth, more constructive skill, and more knowledge than our forefathers; and, living in the same climate, and being of the same race, there seams no insuperable difficulty in our doing at least as much if not more than they accom plished. Rejecting all that part of this passage which would compare, even for its constructive skill,—the mere mechanical arrangement of beams, pillars, and rods, in the Crystal Palace, —with the marvellous architecture of a Gothic cathedral, we readily accept it as an exemplifi cation of the principles laid down in the pre • vious extract We are satisfied with the soundness of the author's views, and give him all praise for the force and ingenuity with which he has stated them. But our surprise is proportionally great to find that Mr. Fergusson repudiates in effect his whole principle, at the moment when we expected he would bring it to its legitimate conclusion. The comparison between ship building and architecture halts, he says, at the point at which architecture became a fine art. Had ship-building been employed to erect marine structures for the worship of the Supreme, it might have advanced with archi tecture. But it was only, he says, when " this " strictly useful art [architecture] threw aside "all shadow of utilitarianism, and launched " boldly forth in search of the beautiful and "the sublime, that it became a truly fine art, " and took the elevated position which it now " holds above all other useful arts." This, in connection with the preceding passages, is unintelligible. We could understand it if it proceeded from a ranting idealist, ready to discard all experience in favour of what he conceived to be the inspiration of his own mind ; but that Mr. Fergusson, who has shown that every style of architecture grew to gran deur and beauty by attention to structural use and propriety, should assert that it never became a fine art until it " launched boldly " forth" (a silly phrase) " in search of the " sublime and beautiful," completely puzzles us. Does he really contend, after what he has previously taught, that it was by any such " launching forth " that the great Gothic edi fices were raised ? His knowledge refutes his theory in the most decisive manner, the latter besides being contradicted by what he says subsequently with great force, that in any science or art " progress towards perfection is " only to be attained by the united efforts of " many steadily pursuing a well-defined object." We suspect that it is owing to the " launching forth" principle that such conspicuous failures have occurred in modern architecture. We earnestly direct Mr. Fergusson's attention to the fifty-fourth page of his introduction, as being apparently inconsistent with the general idea of this otherwise sound and ingenious essay. We cannot speak too highly of the clearness and accuracy of the wood-engravings They go far of themselves to form an architectural library. We are inclined to think it an im provement in such works that the paging of the two volumes runs on consecutively. Claude de Vesci. A Tale. Two Vols. London : Bell and Daldy. THIS is an interesting story of the recovery of a lost inheritance, and might have been made even more interesting than it is. Cuthbert Vesey, a Northumbrian farmer, suddenly re ceives a letter from Blrbadoes intrusting to his care the two orphan children of his brother Thomas, who had gone out to the NV est Indies in early youth. The Veseys were the direct representatives of the old Norman house of De Vesci, who had been lords of the estate of Thordale in Northumberland. The last owner, Sir Rupert de Vesci, who had wasted his patrimony at the Court of Charles 11., had covenanted with the pur chaser of Thordale that if ever one of his descendants should acquire sufficient wealth, he should be entitled to recover the property. This was in 1699, and his descendant, Thomas Vesey, about one hundred yew s afterwards, had gone out to Barbadoes with the view of enabling himself to take advantage of this provision. His little boy Claude, brought up by his uncle, early evinces a distaste for mer cantile or agricultural pursuits, and is sent to Cambridge. He here graduates with great die- nwaimemminunim.