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

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.

140

tinction, and ultimately enters holy orders.
The series of incidents by which Claude re-
covered the family inheritance, form the
staple of the second volume. We shall not,
however, forestal our readers by narrating
them. The principal charm of the story con-
sists of the scenes in Northumberland. Here
the writer is evidently quite at home—much
more so than when he leads us within the
wails of Cambridge University. The characters
here are all exaggerated. We should doubt
the existence of a Dr. Whalesby even thirty
years ago; and Mr. Joliffe's (the tutor) igno-
rance of Greek is completely overdone. The
wine party is even less like reality than those
in " Verdant Green." Nobody gravely calls a
pot of beer " a brimming flagon," or speaks
of a favorite hunter as " you little bay." Cold
fowl and ham is not exactly the dinner which
a fast set would indulge in after a long day's
run ; nor do we believe that the practical
joke, or rather outrage, attempted upon Claude
has any. precedent in Oxford or Cambridge
annals : at all events, it is no fair specimen of
men's ordinary conduct. The trial scene is a
very good one. The judge is capitally hit
off—" a stern, large:faced old man, with a pair of
" piercing grey eyes under bushy white eye-
" brows.' So also is Sergeant Bradshaw, the
counsel for the defendant :
A big, broad:chested man, with a coarse face, a shrewd
eye, and a loud, positive way of speaking. He was famous
on the Northern Circuit for browbeating witnesses, and
extorting verdicts from weak•minded jurymen by dint of
his imperious assurance. There he sat, with an ostenta
tious indifference, now using a toothpick, now staring
round the court with his eyeglass, scarcely deigning to
notice the proceedings of the plaintiff's counsel, and never
once offering an objection or questioning a witness.

The opening of his address to the jury is also
very true to life :

" Thank you, my lord," replied the sergeant, bowing his
wigged head, and in his blandest tone, " but we shall not
detain your lordship beyond daylight."
. . .

-
Then standing erect, and swelling himself out in all the
magnitude of his burly figure and ample gown, he began in
a bantering tone by " congratulating the court upon the
very entertaining address they bad that morning been pri•
vileged to hear. The ladies especially must have been
enchanted. He should indeed tremble for his client if
their lips had to pronounce the verdict. Happily the jury-
ix,' was filled from the sterner sex, and those gentlemen
were perfectly aware that they were placed in that box not
to he sentimental but to be just. Thn, also knew as well
as he that, for the greater part of his address, his brother
Paget might just as well have read them a chapter out of
Froissard. He could only suppose that the learned counsel
had been gathering up materials for a new county history,
and had treated them to the 1)e Vesci pedigree by way of
specimen."

We think the tale of " Claude de Vesci" par-
takes something of the character of Ser-
geant Playtl.ir's speech, which his learned
brother is here describing. It is a book well
calculated to be a favorite with ladies. The
premature piety of Claude, that " lear old
man " his uncle Cuthbert, and the fine lessons
of morality which are everywhere inculcated,
qualify it eminently for such a distinction.