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Article MONUMENT TO AN OCTOGENERIAN BROTHER. ← Page 2 of 2 Article GOTHIC STREET ARCHITECTURE. Page 1 of 2 →
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Monument To An Octogenerian Brother.
to fish , not men but trout . The Garnock trout , however , were not complaisant enough to allow themselves to he caught , and the angling saint became so greatly incensed , that , dreading his ire , trout and stream fled before him , seeking the sea by a new channel . "
Gothic Street Architecture.
GOTHIC STREET ARCHITECTURE .
( From the Building Neivs . ) Adopting the best known , though least accurate , collective epithet , applied to designate all styles of mediawal architecture , we propose to consider whether or not there will be a probability of our our seeing any or all of those various related styles , which are included under the term Gothic , adopted for street architecture much more extensively than at prestnt . This is a subject of speculation not unworthy of serious attentionand the
exa-, mination of which cannot fail to be of practical value . Half a century ago to enquire whether we were likely to see such a thing as Gothic Street Architecture revived or reconstructed , would have seemed sheer madness . That it is reasonable to do so now is due to the fact that Gothic has been revived , all but universally , for ecclesiastical structures—more or less generally for domestic buildings in country situations—to a
small extent for public buildings—exceptionally only for the buildings in streets , which are now the subject of our enquiry . It might have been , and has been thought , that the revival of pointed architecture for some objects would make its revival for all purposes a matter of course . This result has not followed , and does not seem to be approaching rapidly . It is , therefore , worth our while to enquire if the essential conditions of the problem be the same in all cases , and it will not be difficult to
show that they are so widely different , in at least one important particular as to leave good grounds for doubting the possibility of a Gothic Street Architecture . A style of art depends for its broad characteristics on the national character and popular taste of the people among whom it has sprung up ; any radical change in these reacts upon the artists employed , and shows itself in their works , and any stimulus applied to the national mind is soon seen to produce results on the works of art produced . This happens in two ways —partly by a direct influence , the change in people's tastes changing the character of the commissions they give—partly t > y
indirect influence , because whatever greatly influences the mind and taste of a whole people will influence , without doubt , individual artists in the same way . Take an imaginary example . The American people have suddenly become two warlike nations , and a deep change has been effected within two years in the nature of their tastes and feelings . There cannot be a doubt that upon such painters and sculptors as they have , the influence of this change will tell , and
tell in the double way we have indicated . Purchasers will require pictures of the war , busts of the generals , and statues of favourite heroes . Painters and sculptors , will , like their neighhours , be infected with the war-fever , and will paint and carve battles and warriors with general enthusiasm . The change , of which we have supposed a startling example , may be traced by every observant man familiar with the history of the arts , and of the changes of complexion in national
characters . Perhaps the most conspicuous instance of it is the revival of classic art , which so closely followed upon the revival of classic literature in the sixteenth century , and which was as complete and as universal as was the overthrow of monkish traditions , and ' the re-establishment of the writers of Greece and Home in their ancient pre-eminence ; and with this instance we have now something to do , because so long as Latin and Greek literature continued the chiefif not the onlmodels of taste
, y , so long would a Gothic revival have been simply impossible . Perhaps the dawn of a different state of things may be traced to Germany , where the writings of Goethe have had an immense influence in founding what is called the romantic school . In this country wo unquestionably owe much to Sir Walter Scott , whose writings directed a great deal of attention to the charms of a literature in every respect the reverse of Johnsonian , and the interest of periods of history which had till then been doomed
too recent and too near home to claim much notice , except from professed antiquarians . At any rate , whether these men be regarded as leading or following , it is very certain that an immense change has taken
place in popular taste in Europe , and especially in Eng land , since the epoch of the French revolution , and that the effect of this change , has been to supersede the exclusive influence which the classic models exercised alike over literature and taste , and to introduce into the one and the other region a disposition to cultivate that which is of native growth . Joined to this influence , however , the English mind has been powerfully operated upon by the astonishing advance of commerce , intercourse , and
scientific invention , and the consequent rapid increase of wealth —by an eager desire or novelty , and by familiarity with operations on a large scale . These two influences , which wo may distinguish as that of nationality , or a substitution of native for ancient classic taste and literature , and that of , let us say , steam-power , meaning a familiarity with all sorts of great aud active enterprises , are two of the characteristics which mark the modern English mindand
, have powerfully affected modern art . To begin with ecclesiastical architecture . The resumption of our own pointed style was the natural result of the rise of what we have termed nationality in our tastes , and all the influences connected with steam and commerce hardly affected it at all , for the simple reason that the service , the constitutions , and the very edifice of the Church , descend direct from the middle agesand modern ages have not touched them . It
, was natural , when England came to look round for all of a noble or an inspiring character , to which her present or her past had given birth , that the noble church architecture of her cathedrals and ministers should be revived in the service of a church , wdiose bishops and their dioceses , whose parishes and parish , priests , whose whole form and many of whose services have come down—translated , so to speak , into Protestant form and life—but otherwise unchanged from the earliest ages of
our history as a united people . It was not the less likely that , as taste for things which are native and national revived and returned , our country gentlemen should seek to return to the forms of architecture employed by their forefathers than that the clergy should revive the manners of their spiritual predecessors ; for hi the country districts of England much of the ancient feudal feeling remains intact , and has readily given rise to the strongest sympathy with ancient architecture . So much is this the case that , as
Mr . Scott has well remarked in his " Domestic architecture , " the cottage building of many remote districts has never been modernised , , and remains almost as tasteful and as quaint as it was iu the sixteenth or fifteenth century . Here ( i . e . with churches and mansions ) we are inclined to think the Gothic revival might possibly have stopped , but for an accidental circumstance , to which few modern architects attain sufficient importance .
Just as the time when the feeling of nationality , as we for want of a better word have termed it , and before that modern element which it is still more difficult to name , but for which steam power stands as an equivalent , had taken the firm hold it now has , it became necessary to rebuild the Houses of Parliament ; and , most happily , a sense of the proprietyof employing on a building which has historic associations such as none other in England can claim , and a style which might also he termed
historic , led to the erection of the Palace of "Westminster , as we now know it , and to the daily and mighty exhibition to the most influential men of the nation of a Gothic building adapted to modern purposes and in daily modern use . A great cry has been raised against the houses again and again by some ; and many even whose prejudices and tastes are all classic , or all steam , have no doubt frequented that house without deriving pleasure from its beauties , or becoming
converts to its style . But even they cannot shut their eyes to it ; and when we remember that all the leading nobility and six hundred of the leading commoners of England have daily and hourly this magnificent structure before them and in use , we cannot wonder that they , and those whose minds they influence , become accustomed to the idea of pointed architecture , for even tho most modern secular public buildings , and that such designs as those of the town-halls of Preston and Northamptonare
, from time to time being selected and erected . Still , though here and there we build Gothic public buildings , we must not suppose that their existence is due ( as is that of revived churches and mansions ) solely to the fact that Gothic is old . They more often occur becuase Gothic is also new . The Gothic revival is a thing of the present day , as much as railways , telegraphs , or iron-plated steamers ; and that section of the modern mind in which the go-a-head elements are the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Monument To An Octogenerian Brother.
to fish , not men but trout . The Garnock trout , however , were not complaisant enough to allow themselves to he caught , and the angling saint became so greatly incensed , that , dreading his ire , trout and stream fled before him , seeking the sea by a new channel . "
Gothic Street Architecture.
GOTHIC STREET ARCHITECTURE .
( From the Building Neivs . ) Adopting the best known , though least accurate , collective epithet , applied to designate all styles of mediawal architecture , we propose to consider whether or not there will be a probability of our our seeing any or all of those various related styles , which are included under the term Gothic , adopted for street architecture much more extensively than at prestnt . This is a subject of speculation not unworthy of serious attentionand the
exa-, mination of which cannot fail to be of practical value . Half a century ago to enquire whether we were likely to see such a thing as Gothic Street Architecture revived or reconstructed , would have seemed sheer madness . That it is reasonable to do so now is due to the fact that Gothic has been revived , all but universally , for ecclesiastical structures—more or less generally for domestic buildings in country situations—to a
small extent for public buildings—exceptionally only for the buildings in streets , which are now the subject of our enquiry . It might have been , and has been thought , that the revival of pointed architecture for some objects would make its revival for all purposes a matter of course . This result has not followed , and does not seem to be approaching rapidly . It is , therefore , worth our while to enquire if the essential conditions of the problem be the same in all cases , and it will not be difficult to
show that they are so widely different , in at least one important particular as to leave good grounds for doubting the possibility of a Gothic Street Architecture . A style of art depends for its broad characteristics on the national character and popular taste of the people among whom it has sprung up ; any radical change in these reacts upon the artists employed , and shows itself in their works , and any stimulus applied to the national mind is soon seen to produce results on the works of art produced . This happens in two ways —partly by a direct influence , the change in people's tastes changing the character of the commissions they give—partly t > y
indirect influence , because whatever greatly influences the mind and taste of a whole people will influence , without doubt , individual artists in the same way . Take an imaginary example . The American people have suddenly become two warlike nations , and a deep change has been effected within two years in the nature of their tastes and feelings . There cannot be a doubt that upon such painters and sculptors as they have , the influence of this change will tell , and
tell in the double way we have indicated . Purchasers will require pictures of the war , busts of the generals , and statues of favourite heroes . Painters and sculptors , will , like their neighhours , be infected with the war-fever , and will paint and carve battles and warriors with general enthusiasm . The change , of which we have supposed a startling example , may be traced by every observant man familiar with the history of the arts , and of the changes of complexion in national
characters . Perhaps the most conspicuous instance of it is the revival of classic art , which so closely followed upon the revival of classic literature in the sixteenth century , and which was as complete and as universal as was the overthrow of monkish traditions , and ' the re-establishment of the writers of Greece and Home in their ancient pre-eminence ; and with this instance we have now something to do , because so long as Latin and Greek literature continued the chiefif not the onlmodels of taste
, y , so long would a Gothic revival have been simply impossible . Perhaps the dawn of a different state of things may be traced to Germany , where the writings of Goethe have had an immense influence in founding what is called the romantic school . In this country wo unquestionably owe much to Sir Walter Scott , whose writings directed a great deal of attention to the charms of a literature in every respect the reverse of Johnsonian , and the interest of periods of history which had till then been doomed
too recent and too near home to claim much notice , except from professed antiquarians . At any rate , whether these men be regarded as leading or following , it is very certain that an immense change has taken
place in popular taste in Europe , and especially in Eng land , since the epoch of the French revolution , and that the effect of this change , has been to supersede the exclusive influence which the classic models exercised alike over literature and taste , and to introduce into the one and the other region a disposition to cultivate that which is of native growth . Joined to this influence , however , the English mind has been powerfully operated upon by the astonishing advance of commerce , intercourse , and
scientific invention , and the consequent rapid increase of wealth —by an eager desire or novelty , and by familiarity with operations on a large scale . These two influences , which wo may distinguish as that of nationality , or a substitution of native for ancient classic taste and literature , and that of , let us say , steam-power , meaning a familiarity with all sorts of great aud active enterprises , are two of the characteristics which mark the modern English mindand
, have powerfully affected modern art . To begin with ecclesiastical architecture . The resumption of our own pointed style was the natural result of the rise of what we have termed nationality in our tastes , and all the influences connected with steam and commerce hardly affected it at all , for the simple reason that the service , the constitutions , and the very edifice of the Church , descend direct from the middle agesand modern ages have not touched them . It
, was natural , when England came to look round for all of a noble or an inspiring character , to which her present or her past had given birth , that the noble church architecture of her cathedrals and ministers should be revived in the service of a church , wdiose bishops and their dioceses , whose parishes and parish , priests , whose whole form and many of whose services have come down—translated , so to speak , into Protestant form and life—but otherwise unchanged from the earliest ages of
our history as a united people . It was not the less likely that , as taste for things which are native and national revived and returned , our country gentlemen should seek to return to the forms of architecture employed by their forefathers than that the clergy should revive the manners of their spiritual predecessors ; for hi the country districts of England much of the ancient feudal feeling remains intact , and has readily given rise to the strongest sympathy with ancient architecture . So much is this the case that , as
Mr . Scott has well remarked in his " Domestic architecture , " the cottage building of many remote districts has never been modernised , , and remains almost as tasteful and as quaint as it was iu the sixteenth or fifteenth century . Here ( i . e . with churches and mansions ) we are inclined to think the Gothic revival might possibly have stopped , but for an accidental circumstance , to which few modern architects attain sufficient importance .
Just as the time when the feeling of nationality , as we for want of a better word have termed it , and before that modern element which it is still more difficult to name , but for which steam power stands as an equivalent , had taken the firm hold it now has , it became necessary to rebuild the Houses of Parliament ; and , most happily , a sense of the proprietyof employing on a building which has historic associations such as none other in England can claim , and a style which might also he termed
historic , led to the erection of the Palace of "Westminster , as we now know it , and to the daily and mighty exhibition to the most influential men of the nation of a Gothic building adapted to modern purposes and in daily modern use . A great cry has been raised against the houses again and again by some ; and many even whose prejudices and tastes are all classic , or all steam , have no doubt frequented that house without deriving pleasure from its beauties , or becoming
converts to its style . But even they cannot shut their eyes to it ; and when we remember that all the leading nobility and six hundred of the leading commoners of England have daily and hourly this magnificent structure before them and in use , we cannot wonder that they , and those whose minds they influence , become accustomed to the idea of pointed architecture , for even tho most modern secular public buildings , and that such designs as those of the town-halls of Preston and Northamptonare
, from time to time being selected and erected . Still , though here and there we build Gothic public buildings , we must not suppose that their existence is due ( as is that of revived churches and mansions ) solely to the fact that Gothic is old . They more often occur becuase Gothic is also new . The Gothic revival is a thing of the present day , as much as railways , telegraphs , or iron-plated steamers ; and that section of the modern mind in which the go-a-head elements are the