Architecture And Archæology.

those conditions , but we can do a better and a nobler thin g —we can make our trade honourable and our towns beautiful . Now , let us examine the architecture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in our English towns . Cast your eyes along our modern streets , ancl consider which of the principles of beauty they exemplify . The chief elements of beauty , ivhether in form or colour , are variety with unity .

Iu the metropolitan type of streets , found in all the " genteel " neighbourhoods of London , the element of variety is absolutely excluded , while the unity is ofthe most meagre and commonplace character . The common provincial type gains something from its greater variety of general outline , but the forms aro uninteresting in themselves , and there is no relationship or bond of unity among them ; so that the

whole thing is a sort of chaos , as if one house had fallen from the moon , and another from Jupiter , while a third had pushed up its impudent face from tbe regions below . In street architecture there is only one external line which admits of any great variety in its direction . The side lines of each house aud of each block must generally be simple and unbroken perpendiculars . The ground line is fixed bj

an equally rigid necessity . But in the line of roofs , which have only the sky for background , there is unlimited scope for taste and ingenuity . The first reformation which needs making in our street architecture is the reformation of the sl-g-line . I am no bigotted adherent of any one system of architectural forms . Each one ofthe great national styles has abeauty of its oivn which all true taste will be able to recognise

and appreciate ; but if we consider which of them will give us ihe greatest freedom ancl variety for the sky-line of a long street , I think we shall inevitably turn to the Gothic as alone available for this purpose . In all the Creek , Boman , and Italian styles , the dominant lines are horizontal ; but the first demand of good street architecture is for

something which shall not be horizontal—for some contrast to the inevitable flatness of the long ground line . In large , wealthy towns , " ivhere the horizontal style can be carried out on an extensive and costly scale , as in Cannon-street , London , and in the Club-houses of Pall Mall , a certain kind of gloomy grandeur may be attained . But it is essentially a palatial style , and the attempt to apply it to street

architecture has been the ruin and desolation of our modern towns . Where ordinary builders , with cheap materials , copy these horizontal forms in streets of middle-class houses , they have no alternative but to produce the meagre squarefaced brick fronts which arc now the universal type in small country towns , or else the flimsy , meretricious , modern shop style , stuckover with pilasters and pediments all of wood

and plaster , but painted iu imitation of tho most gorgeous marbles . Both these alternatives are utterly and irretrievably bad , but there is nothing else to be done so long as the popular ideas of architecture are associated with these horizontal forms . It is useless to attempt to improve the appearance of this kind of building by elaborate ornamentation . It is the outline which is wrong , and no richness of details can ever compensate for that fundamental defect . In

order to rid our streets of the melancholy monotony of horizontal lines ancl square-headed windows , our only hope appears to be in returning to the principles , though not necessarily to the old forms , of Gothic architecture ; modifying it according to our present wants , but retaining the dominant idea , viz .: the general verticality of the design , the sky-line always broken by turret or pinnacle or gable , the openings of the

principal doors and windows more or less arched , the ornamentation not encrusted on the flat opaque surface , but - - .. itr . ' . i'ecl- in outline , as by sculpturing the salient points and angles ofthe masonry , or ensiling the arched openings ; and above all , the proportions of the whole design , and ol every feature , carefully and scientifically studied . In modern houses , among tho most important features of the interior ,

are the fire-places . All the comforts of an English home centre round its fire-side . A fire-place in every room is now a necessity of English life . But these fire-places involve another necessity ; every one of them must be provided with a separate chimney , carried up clear of the roof . Now , the architects of Greece and Eome had not this necessity to deal with . In their architecture , chimneys ivere not at all or very partially provided for . But in adapting that architecture to English streets , this feature must always be

introduced . And how is it done ? Stand upon any churchtower , and look down upon the frightful wilderness of chimney-pots in any English town . Was ever such a Babel of ugliness created by human hands ? They arc evidently felt to be merely necessary evils , and are treated accordingly . Very different is the practice of the Gothic architect . The style in which he works recognises chimneys as frankly as

it does doors and windows , and makes of them very ornamental features ofthe general design . Let us now come down from the roofs and look at the doors and windows in an ordinary street of first-class shops . Plate-glass , brass-work , paint , and gilding have done all which in them lies to make those shop fronts attractive . Ignorant people stare at them admiringland exclaim "How lendid ! " But ask a true artist

y , sp what he thinks of it all , or anyone who has accustomed his eye to look for chaste and genuine beauty , and he will answer , " Here is ornament but no design ; costly material but no elegance ; splendour ivithout beauty . Look down that row of shops , and . what is there besides plate-glass , brasswork , paint , and gilding ? " What substratum of beautiful form is there to sustain and harmonize this combination

of ornament ? A long straight line at the bottom , and a long straight line at the top , that is the outline , and this is all , from end to end of that long gaudy street ! No variety , no proportion , no graceful curve to be seen anywhere . And this is the result of Italian principles in street architecture . TT'li ^ should those gay windows have such uninteresting horizontal tops ? The bottom and the

poor two sides must be straight almost of necessity ; why not give them the advantage of a curved line on the only remaining side , and break tbe everlasting monotony of parallelograms ? It is not needful that they should be crowned with the equilateral arch ; there is variety enough among the multitudinous forms of flat arches to suit every requirement

and everyjtaste . No doubt a straight lintel or bressumer beam is the cheapest and easiest way of covering a short space ; there are positions also in which it is not only easy but beautiful , as in Greek temples ; but there are other positions in which it is absurd and ugly , as generally in shop windows . It requires intelligence and taste to select for each position the most beautiful and appropriate forms , but intelligence

and taste must be paid for , like everything else which is worth having . The additional cost , however , of good taste in a substantial building is not necessarily a very large ] ier centage . A house which could be built ugly for a thousand pounds might be built beautiful for eleven hundred —twelve hundred would do it handsomely . A man miry spend as much more as he likes upon ornament , and may soon learn

that a fancy for fineiy is about the easiest road to ruin ; but ornament is not necessary nor even always desirable . Good proportions ivith graceful and varied outlines—these are the points of most importance and involving least expence . Wo are now legally compelled , ivhen we build neiv houses , to spend money in making good our drainage , and this is no more than what every member of a civilized community most justly owes to tho bodily well-being of his neighbours .

Can it be denied that he owes something also to their mental welfare ? and that he may with fully as much justice be called upon to spend money in order to save their mental faculties from injury as to preserve their bodies from infection ? Let us neither attempt to resuscitate old styles ivhose only life was the life of their own age , nor to combine together incongruous forms with a false and tasteless eclecticism . But let

us gradually developc an architecture of our own , by following the simple rules of common sense and the true laws of beauty . When a house is to be built , consider first the accommodation which is required , and make thc plan with an eye solely to convenience . Don't add a- single room , or passage , or window , or door , ivhieh is not wanted for use . You may fancy thay are wanted to complete the design , but if they

are , the design is a bad one . A good design needs no such " completing . " Of all the horrors of bad architecture , blind windows and sham doors arc the most rotten and disgusting . When you bare made the plan of every story , and provided the best accommodation possible in thc allotted space , then draw the elevation of your building , first in a rough sketch , putting in every door and ivindow in the exact place , and of the exact size ivhieh will be most convenient . When you have thus built up your framework , and made sure that you