The Dark Ages Of Architecture.

THE DARK AGES OF ARCHITECTURE .

( Continued from page 26 . ) Sir Christopher Wren had by no means the same artistic feeling as Inigo Jones , though greater mathematical powers and science in construction . As an architect he had golden opportunites in the rebuilding of the City of London after the fire of 1666 , and he had the genius to grapple with it in an engineering point of view , and architecturally also so far as

it was possible in the style with which unfortunately he had to deal . The manner in which he did this has been so lately thoroughly set forth by may friend Mr . Kerr , that I need not here enlarge upon his works—the more so as my purpose of showing the thorough intractability of the style which even , his talents could not overcome , is rendered self-evident by the following remarkwhich I venture to quote from

, that gentleman ' s lecture on the subject . Speaking iu reference to the double dome and screen-wall , of the nave of St . Paul ' s he says , " They are at least the makeshifts of marvellous ingenuity and still greater artistic power ; they are falsities it is true , but they are those of a master mind ; they are no common vulgar fibs , but great grand lies of genius . "

Now a style that necessitates lying , which requires ¦ " marvellous ingenuity and still greater artistic power " to conceal awkward roofs and buttresses at the cost of making one-half a building a huge sham to render the other half tolerable , is , I think , fairly to be said to belong to the dark ages ; and that Mr . Kerr ' s estimate of the makeshift is a ¦ correct one reminiscences of a church in Yenice b

, my y Palladio , the roof and buttresses of which had not been ¦ concealed by such ingenious means , yet which seemed to call loudly for a similar friendly shelter , will enable me to corroborate .

The group of tho City spires and the towers of Westminster Abbey are conceived and massed with great talent and a true feefing for what is grand and picturesque , yet with such horrible details , such a substitution of the queerest pots and jars iu the place of pinnacles , that it is necessary that one should half shut one ' s eyes to enable one rihtly to appreciate their outlinesandas suchare after all

g , , , borrowed from the older Mediaeval steeples . One would really rather open one ' s eyes and see the Gothic steeples with proper detail as well . The thin leadeu spire of St . Martin ' s , Ludgate-hill , is , as a composition , rightly placed in contrast to the act of a foil to the dome of St . Paul ' s but in

itself is surely no beautiful object . Time fails me to describe other of Wren's works , or those of his successors who took up his mantle—of Hawksmoor , Vanbrugh , or Chambers , and the rest of the band of that forlorn hope , despite whose efforts architecture sank down gradually to the uttermost depths of degradation , when the ideal of associated English homes were the monotonous ,

dreary walls of Harley Street and such like , wherein sham reigned triumphant from palace to terrace in plan , construction , and decoration alike . Art and architecture became absolutely dark or dead , and copies or parodies of the works of other days were all that was attempted . The only merit that can be claimed for them is , as usual , that of " proportion , " an element certainly so essential that there can be

no architecture without it , yet one , the exclusive praise of which is a sure sign that there is little else to praise , just as the most sarcastic thing you can say of a man is to laud too highly his good nature , the meaning of which usually is to suggest doubts as to his sanity . To wade through the works of this dreary period either for the purpose of description or reprobation would be a task , the incongeniality of which

, together with the undue length to which I find I have extended what were intended to be prefatory remarks , must be my excuse for now shirking what might appear to be the subject I really undertook to treat upon . I cannot but own , however , that it is with some satisfaction that I find the ordinary limits of a paper reached , without the necessity of an inquisitorial journeyinto the city for les

. examp to criticise . In the first place , I am spared the necessity unbecoming spiteful ; in the next , a chilling reminiscence of the mterior of St . Paul ' s indisposes me to revisit it until it shall have assumed , as we trust it soon may , all over , and not here and there only , in the ableliands of our Honorary Secretary for Foreign Correspondence , richer hues , akin to

those of St . Mark ' s at Yenice , since we are promised the use of the same materials for its decoration . Then it might have become incumbent upon me , however disagreeable , to sketch and measure the extraordinary sham jjortico set up by Sir John Soane at one end of the Court of the Bank to match , according to a favourite notion in the dark ages , a real one at the other . Again , I had feared that it

would hecomo necessary to study the interior of Sir Johu Soane ' s Museum , which otherwise , not having a fancy to become a candidate for residence in that strange eclectic curiosity shop , I had been content to seek amusement from in the illustrated catalogue of its contents . I had also been afraid that it would be necessai'y for me to search and see how far I could agree or not with Lord Palmerston in his

admiration of the several buildings which he was pleased to call Italian , and as the Horse Guards was one scheduled in his list , the only pleasant feature of which , to my mind , are the sentries in their uniform , who sit like gorgeous personification of "Patience" inside instead of "upon a monument , " the prospect , I assure yon , afforded me slight satisfaction .

I find myself also obliged to omit all consideration of the interesting question of the iconography of "dark ages , " and all research into the origin of the type of cherubs who smile and weep in convenient alternation upon keystones , or in tho meaning of the lions' heads , whence flowers dangle to fill up panels , or into the purpose of the sundry pots that affect all high places . The question also of the polychromy

of the dark ages , I find myself obliged to omit or postpone , unwillingly , because upon this subject much instruction might be drawn as regards what should be avoided . The main ambition on this point seems to have been kept on the safe side ; and safe colours which could do no harm , and whitewash , reduced the interiors of buildings to a similar condition of monotony to that we have remarked in the exteriors .

However , about the close of the last century , there appeared to be commencing a salutary " shaking among bones " ( to quote again the phrase of Mr . Ruskin ) in an artistic as well as in a political sense , and though it seemed for some time difficult to discern whether there were real evidences of resuscitation among them , and whether such shaking were likely to bring any flesh upon them , we , at

this period of time , are able to perceive ( at least we flatter ourselves so ) , that though all the restless changes which have ensued in the successive fashions of copyism since then , there has been beneath the outer garb of Greek and Elizabethan , of Roman , Florentine aud Venetian , Renaissance or Mediawalrevived styles which have met the eye , an undercurrent of healthy struggling to attain independence .

Just before the Exhibition of 1851 , in another lecture , I asserted my belief , in opposition to that of the author above quoted , that not bones alone were being shaken , and that we were upon a sure if slow route to progress . The coming Exhibition of 1862 wiil , it is to be hoped , by its contents , if not by its carcase , afford another favourable opportunity for taking stockand another starting-point in the road of

, progress . What colours are the best to fight under in the future struggle for the advancement of architecture , in - which we shall be all engaged , I must leave to the conscience and calm consideration of each .

As to what style may bo the best to devclope into a healthy , manly , Christian , English , Victorian , architecture , I presume not here to dictate , since we differ in opinion on the subject . It is well that we think not all alike , and are not content , as in the dark ages , like sheep , to follow blindly their leader in all things . But let us fight out the battle , if battle it is

to be , in a legitimate and friendly way , without deputations and special pleading on tho one hand , yet without fear as to throwing stones because both parties live in glass-houses . On the other hand , let each be thankful to the opposing side for pointing out its weak places and turn manfully to repair them- There are plenty of what my friend Mr . Burges calls unecessary "frzzings and crockets " and sham buttresses ,

as wefl as vases and rustications and sham pediments , which may be offered up in a holocaust together , while there is equal room for each party to endeavour , by practice , to prove what their champions have been so vehemently