The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 342, November 22, 1828

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Various. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 342, November 22, 1828

COUNCIL OFFICE, &c. WHITEHALL

CROMLECH

GARDEN OF HYACINTHS

NEEDLE-WORK ALTAR-PIECE

LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY

FLOWERS

CIRCULAR TEMPLES

ST. OLAVE.—A MANX LEGEND

THE ANECDOTE GALLERY

A LIVING ALCHEMIST

Notes of a Reader

COURT OF CHARLES II

STREET SYMPATHIES

LINES TO EDWARD LYTTON BULWER, ON THE BIRTH OF HIS CHILD

CAUSE AND EFFECT

SERVANTS

LONDON LUXURIES

THE BEAUTIFUL

ALGEBRA

A LUCKY MATCH

NELSON

THE BRITISH ALMANAC

THE SKETCH BOOK

A VISION OF PURGATORY

Ancient Roman Festivals

The Gatherer

INNOCENT CONFESSION

MERCHANT TAILORS

RABELAIS

AN AGITATOR

CHINESE POLITENESS

Отрывок из книги

On the annexed page is represented the new splendid range of buildings, including the Council Office, Board of Trade, &c. at Whitehall. The architect, Mr. Soane, has adapted the façade from the Temple of Jupiter Stator, at Rome.1

But Mr. Soane's adaptation has been only partial, and he has adhered merely to the details of the columns and entablature. "The façade," it is well observed in an early Number of the Athenaeum, "enjoys one of the most favourable sites for the display of a public building which the metropolis affords; no limit has been set to the expense; the finest materials the country yields have been used in its construction; the richest example of the richest order which antiquity has left us, has been lavishly employed in its decoration; and yet," continues the critic, "is not the whole a failure?" He then describes the effect of it as "poor, or at best but pretty," and attributes the absence of grandeur to the "want of sufficient elevation."—"To the general elevation it may be objected, that it has no prominent centre; that, composed of two wings and an intermediate space receding, it has more the character of a flank than a front building; and that the want of a central entrance derogates greatly from its dignity as a principal façade."

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But we are mere amateurs in these matters, and it will be as well to leave the remainder of this criticism to the more studious reader. We have, however, glanced at the principal defects which the writer in the Athenaeum points out, and we are bound to admit the justice of his remarks. The details which produce this effect would not be so generally interesting. "The order itself," says he, "it must be admitted, is well copied, and excellently executed;" but Mr. Soane's application of it is loudly censured—a Roman temple being inappropriate for a British Council Office. Perhaps our critic would have preferred a façade like that of the Palais de Justice at Paris,—a platform, ascended by an immense flight of steps, which serves as a basement for a projecting body of four Doric columns; with four large pedestals in front, and statues of Strength, Plenty, Justice, and Prudence, as the cardinal virtues of English legislation and trade.

Upon the whole, we cannot help thinking some of the details of this new range extremely rich and pleasing, although we assent to the above character of their general effect. The columns, of fluted Corinthian, and the cornice of the order, are to us very beautiful; but the upper windows are unsightly, or, as a wag would say, purely attic; and the entrances are too strictly official for the architecture of the building. This brings us again to the inappropriateness of the adaptation, which made these introductions unavoidable.2

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